


hold me tighter, even closer, i'll stay if i'm what you choose

by nosecoffee



Series: but turn out the lights? we're too clever for that [2]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Archie Andrews is a sweetheart, Asexual Jughead, Asexuality, Domestic, Fluff, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Rain, asexual character/s, homeless jug, i love Jellybean and Jughead so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-09-27 01:11:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9943709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: Jughead lets Archie take back the jacket, raises his arms so that he can slip the t-shirt over his head and discard it on the floor, lets him run the towel over his hair and torso.He thinks he's definitely getting a cold.Thinks he doesn't mind if he has Archie to make him feel warm, just beneath his skin.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'Seventeen' from Heathers the Musical
> 
> Please let me know if any of my portrayals of Asexuality are wrong or disrespectful

"Archie?" Jughead whispers. He's pretty sure that the red-head's on the verge of sleep, because Archie's been stroking his shoulder with his thumb for what feels like forever and his movements are finally starting to slow.

"Yeah?" The voice that responds is thick with sleep, but curious.

Jughead's glad that it's dark in Archie's room, so he can't see that blood is rushing to Jughead's cheeks.

He rethinks the statement he was about to make. "I really like you."

"Oh yeah?" Archie laughs softly, chest vibrating with laughter.

Jughead closes his eyes momentarily. "You're the one thing in my life that doesn't fucking suck right now. You and that fucking newspaper. What does that say about me?"

"You need a better hobby?" Archie suggests. Jughead pushes his shoulder, smiling a little.

"Honestly, fuck off, Archie."

~

Jughead can't remember how they ended up this way, with him seated on Archie's lap, kissing him like there's no tomorrow.

Doesn't know why he's wearing Archie's goddamn Letterman jacket, or why he isn't wearing his beanie, or why they're both soaking wet, but he's not stopping now.

He vaguely remembers Archie offering him a ride home in his new car.

Vaguely remembers them pulling off the road when it started hailing.

There's a dumb little ABBA song playing softly out of the radio, and there's a beeping noise going off because Jughead took his seatbelt off, and, sure, the car's parked, but the engine's still running.

Archie has his fingers curled through the belt loops of Jughead's skinny jeans, pulling him closer, and, gosh, that's going a little further than he'd like, so he carefully pulls away.

"I'm gonna stop you right there," he says, and he doesn't know why he's whispering, it's not like there's anybody he'd disturb.

"Too much?" Archie asks, so ready to stop it all. It makes something in Jughead's stomach jerk.

"S'just all the hip-action." A few droplets of water from the hair at the nape of his neck go running down his back and he shivers, catching the look in Archie's eyes when he does. The earnest, interested, heady look that makes his eyes look so much darker than they really are. "The kissing's fine."

"Okay," Archie agrees. Jughead runs a hand carefully through Archie's red hair, plastered against his scalp by the rain that was pattering on the roof of the little car. "Are you cold?"

Jughead shakes his head, ignoring the way his t-shirt clings to his torso, making him feel like the cold of the water is making a home in his pores.

He thinks perhaps he's going to get a cold because his hair is so drenched. Jughead thinks he could dry it with Archie's Letterman jacket, thinks Archie might murder him if he did.

"Do you want to go home?"

He should. They both should.

Jughead doesn't want to. At least, not quite yet.

"C'mere," he says and goes to kiss Archie's neck, a hand on the other side of his throat, leeching the heat from him. Feels Archie shiver underneath him. Thinks that maybe Archie's getting a cold too.

It only serves them right for getting caught out in the rain.

"C'mere," Jughead repeats, dragging his lips over Archie's jaw as the song changes and the beeping cuts off, like the car's given up.

It isn't hailing anymore.

~

Archie drives him to the little motel Jughead's taken up residence in since the Drive-In closed.

Pulls him inside, complaining that he needs to freshen up before heading home, lest Fred notice how swollen pink Archie's lips are, or how drenched he is.

"There's a hairdryer in the bathroom. If I wring your shirt out and blow dry it, it'll only be a little damp when you go home." Jughead tells Archie and then gestures for Archie to give him his t-shirt.

Archie obliges him and tosses him the soaked material.

Jughead tosses him a towel from the bathroom and hears a faint grumble that he takes as thanks.

It's only when he's got out the hairdryer, ready to finish the job off that Archie calls from the main room. "Jug?"

Jughead drops the shirt over the towel rack and exits the bathroom. "What's up?"

Archie's sitting on the little couch by the door, staring at the space above the bed.

"Oh," Jughead says, and tugs his beanie over his ears to hide the blush creeping onto his cheeks.

Archie's staring at the collage Jughead's created, the one that he'd made out of old photo albums he stole before he was kicked out.

Most of the pictures are of his mother and sister, but there are a few with Archie in them, and about three of Betty.

"It's a note of endearment if I have a picture of you." He says, hands stuffed deep in the pockets of Archie's Letterman jacket.

"Jug...this is..." Archie glances over at him, an open look on his face.

Jughead continues, "It's a note of love if I've put them up."

Archie licks his lips and furrows his brows in concentration before mumbling, "C'mere."

Jughead obliges him.

"Aren't you cold? Your clothes are wet."

He shrugs, and Archie shakes his head.

"Let me help you out."

Jughead lets Archie take back the jacket, raises his arms so that he can slip the t-shirt over his head and discard it on the floor, lets him run the towel over his hair and torso.

He thinks he's definitely getting a cold.

Thinks he doesn't mind if he has Archie to make him feel warm, just beneath his skin.

~

"I got a job." Jughead says. Archie looks up from his milkshake and smiles softly.

It's raining again. Why does it always rain when he's with Archie?

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jughead finishes off his fries, wiping his fingers on the thighs of his skinny jeans. "Pop asked me. Since Hermione got a job with your dad, he was down a waitperson."

Archie raised an eyebrow, taking a sip of his strawberry milkshake. "Does this mean you have to wear the milkman outfit?" He's grinning.

Jughead rolls his eyes and flicks a stray bit of pickle at him. Archie laughs. "I'm not gonna wear the dumb hat. S'part of my employment agreement. No dumb hats."

Archie purses his lips, like he's trying not to laugh. Jughead wonders if he threatens him if he'll laugh anyway. "Don't take this the wrong way, but that really does it for me," Archie ends up saying and Jughead snorts.

"I don't need to know about your weird kinks. Keep it in your pants, Archibald." There's probably a full quarter of his burger left so he goes in to finish it off.

"What'd I do to deserve full-name status?" Archie questions, but he's still smiling.

Jughead takes a moment to swallow his mouthful. "Exist."

"Jug..." Archie reaches across the table, palm exposed, and Jughead's attitude softens a little. He takes Archie's hand, lacing their fingers together.

Jughead licks his lips. "Just promise to never ask me to wear it in bed."

Archie quirks an eyebrow, squeezing Jughead's hand. "What bed?"

"Go. Fuck. Yourself." He huffs, but he's smiling.

"I promise," Archie says.

~

"Where's she been staying?" Archie asks, and Jellybean tugs at his hair. Archie smiles at her, and the three year-old grins back, two teeth in the front row missing.

Jughead smiles fondly, tiredly at the raven-haired girl, the red ribbon in her hair catching the midday light through the window of the diner. "A relative."

Archie furrows his eyebrows, bouncing his knee to entertain the little girl. "Why aren't you staying with them too?"

Jughead sighs, blowing some stray hairs out of his eyes. "They don't trust me. Think I'm a stoner."

Archie's always been good with kids, and Jellybean loves Archie, probably about as much as she loves Jughead, but not quite.

The red-head frowns. "They're idiots."

"They're doing right by Jelly, so I'm not about to complain." Jughead replies and then reaches for his sister. Archie hands her over and she giggles.

"Juggie, Juggie," she says and pats his cheeks with her hands that haven't quite lost their soft baby-chubbiness.

He smiles at her and takes off his hat, placing it on her own head, in a way that makes it slip down over her eyes and make her laugh uproariously.

A waiter comes past with Jelly's chocolate sundae and Jughead brings it towards her, putting a napkin on her lap before looking back up at Archie. He takes back his hat and fits it back onto his head.

"That's bullcrap, Jug." He says and Jughead thanks his lucky stars that Archie knows how to censor himself around Jelly.

"I know," Jughead agrees, watching Jelly go to town on the sundae with the kind of love in his gaze that few had ever received. "I'm just glad they're taking care of her, treating her right."

"Do they know what your living arrangements are like?"

Jughead shrugs, a little embarrassed. "No. They think I'm staying with you."

"Why would they think that?"

"I may have told them that I was." There's disapproval and a little sadness in Archie's expression and it makes Jughead's blood hot, and not in the nice way like in Archie's car and in the motel room. "They'd never let me see her if they knew I was bunking in a motel. It'd just confirm their suspicions that I'm a dead-end."

"You're not." Archie assures him, reaching across the table for Jughead's free hand, the one not stroking Jelly's hair back from her face so she doesn't get ice cream in her hair. "A dead-end, I mean."

Jug head snorts, "Glad you think so."

"Come live with me." The statement makes him look up.

"Huh?" The earnest, caring expression Archie was wearing could break him in a heartbeat.

Archie squeezes his hand, before releasing it. "Come live with me. We can set you up in the guest bedroom. You have your own space. I'm sure dad wouldn't mind; he loves you."

Jughead prevents the ruin of Jelly's dress with a napkin. "Seriously, Archie? You mean it?"

"'Course I do." Archie says, in a tone that says it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I'd do anything for you."

"What did I do to deserve you?" Jughead questions.

"Well, you gave me your sandwich in kindergarten when some bullies took mine, and then demanded half of it." Archie shrugs and Jelly says something unintelligible between mouthfuls of ice cream.

"Fair point." Jughead responds, and he's smiling.

It's probably the happiest he's been in a while, sitting in a booth with the two people he loves most in the world.

But he wouldn't say that to Archie until a month later.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed! If you did, please feel free to leave a comment and/or kudos, and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee. Again, thanks!


End file.
